Hacking Homebrew Misc Is it possible to remove homebrew from Nintendo Switch?

[Qwertyuiop1234]

Hello! I am pretty much new to the switch homebrew scene and am planning to hack mine, so I'd like to know if it's possible to remove the hacks. Thanks in advance!

 

[Hayato213]

Homebrew are just files stored on the sd card, you should use an emunand for Homebrew and pirated games and sysnand if you want to play online.

 

[RednaxelaNnamtra]

Hello! I am pretty much new to the switch homebrew scene and am planning to hack mine, so I'd like to know if it's possible to remove the hacks. Thanks in advance!

The cfw will only be loaded in memory from the sd card, so nothing is permanent.
One exception is autorcm (only V1 switches), which does a small reversible change to the nand, so that you automatically boot into the rcm mode, instead of needing a jig every time the console should boot into CFW after it was tuned fully off (standby keeps the CFW).

If you are only interested in Homebrew, so homebrew applications, overlays and system modules (and to some degree mods and cheats while offline), then you can do a very simple SysMMC/SysNand setup, since Atmosphere is build to be used online while in CFW.
For that, you can just get atmophere from their git and extract it to the sd card. The defaults used this way are safe for online use, as long as only hombrew is used, and nothing is installed to the system storage. Just make sure that when using game mods/Cheats, that those you use are safe for online usage.
I'm using this setup while playing online games like splatoon for many years by now.


If you are interested in playing backups or homebrew in the xci/nsp format, you need to create and use an offline emuMMC/emunand and setup the blocking of nintendos servers.
This creates a copy of the internal storage onto the sd card, which can be used independend of the internal storage.
You can use overlays to switch between emunand and sysnand without needing to start the switch, when combining this with sysnand cfw, just make sure to easily be able to identify if you are in one or the other (e.g. by using light mode in one, and dark mode in the other), so that you don't accidentally install anything to the sysMMC/sysNand.

 

[Qwertyuiop1234]

The cfw will only be loaded in memory from the sd card, so nothing is permanent.
One exception is autorcm (only V1 switches), which does a small reversible change to the nand, so that you automatically boot into the rcm mode, instead of needing a jig every time the console should boot into CFW after it was tuned fully off (standby keeps the CFW).

If you are only interested in Homebrew, so homebrew applications, overlays and system modules (and to some degree mods and cheats while offline), then you can do a very simple SysMMC/SysNand setup, since Atmosphere is build to be used online while in CFW.
For that, you can just get atmophere from their git and extract it to the sd card. The defaults used this way are safe for online use, as long as only hombrew is used, and nothing is installed to the system storage. Just make sure that when using game mods/Cheats, that those you use are safe for online usage.
I'm using this setup while playing online games like splatoon for many years by now.


If you are interested in playing backups or homebrew in the xci/nsp format, you need to create and use an offline emuMMC/emunand and setup the blocking of nintendos servers.
This creates a copy of the internal storage onto the sd card, which can be used independend of the internal storage.
You can use overlays to switch between emunand and sysnand without needing to start the switch, when combining this with sysnand cfw, just make sure to easily be able to identify if you are in one or the other (e.g. by using light mode in one, and dark mode in the other), so that you don't accidentally install anything to the sysMMC/sysNand.

So if i wanted to go back to stock, do i just take out the sd card with the homebrew installed and there would be no modifications done to the sysNAND?

 

[RednaxelaNnamtra]

So if i wanted to go back to stock, do i just take out the sd card with the homebrew installed and there would be no modifications done to the sysNAND?

From the software side even just shutting the switch fully down is enough, as long as you don't install xcis/nsps to the sysMMC/SysNand.
Just keep in mind, newer models need a modchip, there removing everything is a bit harder, because you need to desolder the modchip. Older Models on the other side have a full unpatcheable exploit for a full softmod.

Through normally there is no real reason to boot stock again, except for maybe around 1 day after bigger updates, where atmosphere needs an update. So of you are impatient and accidentally update before atmosphere got updated, you might want to boot stock, but normally sciresM is very quick on updating atmosphere CFW, so its between a few hours and in the worst case a few days before its updates

 

[Ryab]

Hello! I am pretty much new to the switch homebrew scene and am planning to hack mine, so I'd like to know if it's possible to remove the hacks. Thanks in advance!

Depends what you are wanting to do. If you plan to do anything past just simple homebrew I suggest just making an emunand. On the emunand you can basically do whatever you want and completely remove it later if you want.

 

[Qwertyuiop1234]

From the software side even just shutting the switch fully down is enough, as long as you don't install xcis/nsps to the sysMMC/SysNand.
Just keep in mind, newer models need a modchip, there removing everything is a bit harder, because you need to desolder the modchip. Older Models on the other side have a full unpatcheable exploit for a full softmod.

Through normally there is no real reason to boot stock again, except for maybe around 1 day after bigger updates, where atmosphere needs an update. So of you are impatient and accidentally update before atmosphere got updated, you might want to boot stock, but normally sciresM is very quick on updating atmosphere CFW, so its between a few hours and in the worst case a few days before its updates

The only reason i'm asking is so that i could be able to play online my actual legal games without fear of getting banned, so thanks a lot!

 

[Doctorbeefy]

So if i wanted to go back to stock, do i just take out the sd card with the homebrew installed and there would be no modifications done to the sysNAND?

It depends on what you did to the sysnand prior.

If you were using sysnand and pirating games or using stuff that shouldn't have been possible on it you risk a ban. If you were using a emunand then you just boot into stock and play online there.

 

[RednaxelaNnamtra]

The only reason i'm asking is so that i could be able to play online my actual legal games without fear of getting banned, so thanks a lot!

As mentioned before, atmosphere itself is build to be used online, so when using it with its defaults there is no need to boot stock.
Just don't install any XCIs/NSPs on SysMMC/sysnand, that way I'm online with my system for years by now, including playing splatoon.

For backups or any XCIs/NSPs use the emuMMC/emunand, where you block online usage via host file in `/atmosphere/hosts/emummc.txt`.
Also set `blank_prodinfo_emummc=1` in the exosphere.ini for the EmuMMC as extra fallback.
You would probably also use hekate as bootloader in this case, so you can specify `kip1patch=nosigchk` only in the EmuMMC boot entry. This should keep the siganture patches as much away from the SysMMC as possible.
I think there is no way to separate the exefs patches too from the SysMMC, but in itself they should not be a problem, as long as you don't try to install anything to the SysMMC.

This setup should allow mostly safe online usage of the SysMMC, while allowing backup usage on the EmuMMC. It also allows easy switcing between SysMMC and EmuMMC via fastCFWswitch or studious-pancake overlay.